


War for the World

by HeathNils



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alien Invasion, Camping, Love Blossoming, Love at First Sight, M/M, Modern/Sci-Fi AU, Scientist!Freed, Tough Guy/Laxus, War of the Worlds (1953), War of the Worlds AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2019-06-28 06:58:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15702168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeathNils/pseuds/HeathNils
Summary: "In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins-- Not through strength but through perseverance."- H. Jackson BrownAn AU based of the well-known classic, 'War of the Worlds'.Freed Justine is sent to check out the mysterious landing site of strange meteorite that had crash landed in the outskirts of Magnolia where he meets with the rebellious Laxus Dreyar. Love begins to simmer between the two when the Earth and humanity is suddenly and unexpectedly challenged for the their rights for survival.Fraxus. Yaoi.





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was actually based off of the 1953 movie, War of the Worlds (and in my opinion, the best one although the 2005 one wasn't all that bad as it did draw more from the source material) and I can't tell you how much I love that movie, though no one from this day and age of high-quality special effects and state of the art CGI would understand.
> 
> I watched it recently and the first thing I thought of when I saw Gene Foster and Ann Robinson that popped in my mind was an AU Fairy Tail fic where I would make Freed and Laxus the stars because I was reminded so heavily about them though out the course of the film (how and why is beyond me).
> 
> Though I did reserve the roles a wee bit to keep Freed smart but the damsel in distress and Laxus... And Laxus the hunky hero that we all totally know he is.

When I was young, History had always has been a rather interesting and curious subject to me.

Growing up, I had been taught and told from an early age that History was meant to teach me and many other young children of the world's long and never ending story of its many wonderful and terrible truths about its past, its beginnings and it's current standing. It was to taught to me about future generations to never make the same mistakes or to repeat various parts, actions or choices that our ancestors either committed or done that were considered 'for the good of the people', a politer term.

During the first World War that had begun in July 28th of 1914 and ended in November 11th of 1918, it was story of declining but advancement as well. For what was considered the first time in history where humanity was first seen combining their powers and their strengths with that of others to combine with their nation's power to fight against other nations and their combined powers, using whatever crude weapons they had those days. In the second World War that started September 1st of 1939 and lasted as September 2nd of 1945, nearly every nation, in every continent on the planet was in involved in one way or another and was considered a dark advancement. Many nations worldwide turned to the new breakthroughs in science, looking for new devices of warfare to use against one another, reaching an unheard of and unparalleled peak in their very capacity for destruction.

But once more, man was forced to bring up arms once again, to fight against the most terrible, the most horrible weapons of super science that no one has seen before, some that no one in their right mind would want to believe ever existed, threatening all of mankind and every last living creature on Earth, that no one was prepared for;

A War of the Worlds.

I'll be honest as a fellow man I, like everyone else at the time, wouldn't have believed nor could possibly imagined that in the middle of the 20th century our affairs were being watched closely by beings with intelligence far greater than that of our own. Across the vast gulf of space, there was a planet, a planet we called Mars, that in the end believed had started it all, with creatures with intellects, vast, cool and completely unsympathetic must have regarded our home world with rather envious eyes, drawing up their plans against us.

A plan of dark portions.

I remember I was in the town square, helping with the cleaning process during one warm Autumn evening when I found myself engaged in conversation with a young man, a co-worker in the fields of science and literature and an old friend named Rufus Lore and he had once told me that the closest known planet to Earth, the planet Mars was more than 140 million miles away from the sun and about 35 million miles from Earth. Rufus had believed the planet to have been in its last stages of exhaustion, as there was no other explanation given as to why they did what they did. It was mostly guesswork and a theory that had little to nothing to go on but in all fairness, it was a pretty good hunch. He had once told me that on Mars temperatures would drop far below zero come nightfall, even at its equator. He had guessed, theorized, that the inhabitants, or 'Martians', had looked across the vast emptiness that made up space with instruments of science of which I hardly doubt anyone of could have scarcely imagined to be thought of as real, searching for another world to which they could migrate to and even call home.

"They could not go to Pluto," Rufus had told me one day as we went through the remains of our destroyed city, "Pluto is the outermost of the planets, its so cold there that it's very atmosphere would lie frozen thick to its very surface."

"They couldn't go to Neptune or Uranus."

"'Why?" I remembered asking him before I could even stop myself.

"They are twin planets of eternal nights and perpetual cold, both surrounded by an unbreathable atmosphere of methane gas and ammonia vapors I read." Rufus had answered for me.

It was on that day after the terrible events as the day that I remembered becoming rather curious on Rufus's 'Migration Theory'. I remember asking him about every planet I could name or remember in our solar system at the every chance I got when I wasn't busy doing my part to help excavate and restore the city or having Erza breathing down our necks.

"Saturn?"

"They would have probably considered it." Rufus sighed, looking up to the dusty sky thoughtfully. "Like us, they probably would have thought of it as beautiful with it's many moon and its rings made of cosmic dust. But alas, they couldn't go there."

"Why not?"

"Its temperature would have been close to 270 degrees below zero," He regarded me with a small smile, "It had ice that lied about 15 thousand miles deep on its surface."

"Jupiter?" I asked before I could stop myself. "Isn't that closer to Mars? Why didn't they pick that one?"

"You are correct about it being close to their home world, Jupiter." Rufus had chuckled a little at this. "But they couldn't go there either..."

"How come?"

"Well, with its titanic cliffs made of lava, rock and ice and with hydrogen flaming at the tops, the atmospheric pressure would have been just terrible, awful even," Rufus smiled gently, "Thousands of pounds to the square inch if memory serves correctly."

"And Venus--?"

"No good."

"Why?"

"Venus may have been the same size to Earth and called our 'sister planet' but its little too 'warm'. Its atmosphere may have not as terrible as Jupiter's, but it is made with carbon dioxide and clouds made of sulfuric acid." Rufus hummed. "It would have been no good. No good at all."

"And Mercury?"

"And neither Mercury." He had replied. "It may be nearest to the sun, but alas, it had no air and the temperature at its equator would have been like that of molten lead."

"So Earth..."

"Indeed. Out of all of the planets in our solar system, that the creatures of Mars, or 'martians' could see and study, only the planet Earth was suitable enough." He sighed. "Green with vegetation, bright blue with water, and possessed the perfect cloudy atmosphere for fertility. It truly must have been seen as a paradise."

"I see..."

It was then, on that very day, I slowly began to realize that it may have not occurred to Rufus, myself and all of mankind during this war that a swift fate might've been hanging over us from the very beginning, whether it had been recent or over time. From the darkness of space, each and every part of our world had been scrutinized, studied and judged, until the time came right for our planet's fate once Earth had approached Mars' orbit.

It was a terrifying story about a war that was seen as test to decide the fate of all life on Earth.

I was barely 20, starting college and an internship at a nearby science research center when the war for the Earth had started. It had all started on a warm, pleasant summer night during August in a small town called Magnolia--


	2. The Night on the Hill

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where has the time gone?!

It was warm and clear night August night in the town of Magnolia. 

The stars were out, twinkling in the night sky like tiny flecks of glitter and the heat from the day dying down for the night allowing cool air to slip in for the time being allowing the people a break before the blistering heat returned for another round at them in the morning. Not much had happened during the day as it slowly receded into the night. The people bustled about and around the streets with couples going out to movies, people closing down shops and others finished some last minute shopping that they had put off until it was much cooler outside. Cars and motorcycles moved down the streets, though fewer in numbers during the night, so barely anyone paid mind as a motorcycle detached itself from the road and parked alongside the sidewalk in front of one of the many shops.

He pulled up to the sidewalk, between two stationary cars and parked his motorcycle. He turned off the engine. He sat up straight in his seat and removed his helmet, allowing his rather electric blonde hair to spring free from the tight confinement, its numerous spiky strands briefly fluffing and then pointing backwards, though some fell down into a small tuft over his forehead, all falling back into place. He was rather a muscular young man with dark orange eyes with a distinctive lightning bolt-shaped scar over his right eye.

He grunted, placing the helmet on his lap as he reached up and rubbed his hand to the back of his neck, trying to get the kink in his neck to go away. He swung his leg over and pushed himself up and off his bike placing his helmet onto the seat just as he heard a gasp from a passerby and turned to look at them, finding them pointing up at the dark sky.

"What is that?!"

Confused, he too looked up to the sky, to get an understanding what they were talking about, only to see a comet, burning bright as it fell from the night sky, aiming for what looked to be a wooded area, in the hills just on the outskirts of the city. He blinked. It was a rather odd-looking comet it was. Laxus had read enough books and articles about meteorites and comets to know how they behave and he's seen his fair share of photos of the resulting comet landing sites on various continents, lands and oceans and felt a little unsettled himself. It had an odd purple-white glow to it and looked bigger then should.

That can't be good, surely.

Many of town's people seemed to share the same anxieties and fears as the blonde did as they too looked into the sky as well, some _'oh'_ -ing while others _'ah'_ -ing at it and many others trembling at the close proximity it had on their town. To their homes.

"What is that?"

"Is that a fireball?"

"No way... It's- It's a comet!"

"Goodness! It's a big one!"

"It's awfully close!"

"Will it hit us?"

He took a brief moment to look at the fear and concern the townspeople had for the anomaly. Everyone, himself included, sighed in a large collective relief as the meteorite landed with a tiny explosion and tremor just on the outskirts of Magnolia, on a hillside where a gully was. Once the fear and anxiety the blonde had was drain, he suddenly felt a mixture of concern and curiosity move in where the previous emotions had once laid. Something was off, he knew but he couldn't explain what it was as the civilians around him began chattering among themselves.

"Oh boy, that had me scared stiff."

"We must be pretty damn lucky to avoid something like that."

"I wonder where it landed..."

"Miles away if its impact didn't effect us..."

"Let's go find it and see what damage its caused."

"Yeah, let's go."

"It probably landed somewhere halfway to Onibus."

"Naw. It looked closer then that, I'm gonna take a look see."

"Be careful."

He let out another sigh before shrugged and turned back around toward the store to continue on with what he originally came here to do. This had nothing to do with him nor did it require his true attention now he was pretty sure that either the police or the mayor himself would have called for a public announcement in and then send someone, a group of the nerdiest scientists conceivable to go out and take a look. He made his way into the store just as the crowd outside began to move toward the meteor's location and pulled out a piece of paper from inside his coat pocket and let out something akin to a chuckle.

His grandfather hadn't changed one bit.

 

* * *

  
Outside the town, in a wooded area not to far from a river, the night sky was clearer, the stars shimmering brighter where a young man and his friends were camping out. He and a group of his friends sat around a crackling campfire, he was reading a book, flipping through the pages while the two friends he was with busied themselves into cooking the catch they caught while fishing in the nearby river.

"Yo Freed. Fish's ready."

"Ah." The man, Freed, smiled as he placed his book down and took the offered plate. "Thank you Bickslow."

"No problem."

Freed Justine was a rather slim and lean young man with waist-length light-green hair that he had gathered up into a high ponytail, his bangs were brushed to the one side, covering the majority of the right side of his face, a pair of thin strands jutting out backwards from the sides of his head shaped like lightning bolts. His eyes were a beautiful sapphire blue, which beneath the left one lies a small beauty mark. He had been confused for a young woman on many numerous occasions because of his hair, his looks and his overall figure which served to irk the greenette but he just bit his tongue and bore it.

"Welp- I think I brought in an impressive haul," His friend, Bickslow, grinned as he speared a rather large and gutted fish onto a stick near the open flames. "I was actually worried that we wouldn't have anything to eat tonight."

Bickslow had been Freed's best friend since their first day of preschool together when Bickslow first pushed Freed into a mud puddle and Freed returned the favor the next day and was quite the _'odditiy'_ to say the least. He stood taller then Freed with a mildly muscular build, broad shoulders with dark red eyes and hair just as eccentric as the rest of him as it was both blue and black in color, with the black hair haven been almost shaven and the blue hair occupying the top and the sides of his head, being much longer, the one of the top stylized into a mohawk-like crest, and the two on the sides of his head pointing backwards. What mostly drew people's attention was on the upper part of his nose and his forehead was a tattoo of a stylized man extending his long, curved arms outwards and dark nail polish painted onto his fingernails.

"What are you talking about?" Evergreen, Freed's other best friend asked. "We packed plenty of food before coming out here, Bickslow. Why did does it matter if you caught anything or not?"

"That's not the point of camping, Ever baby," Bickslow replied, "The reason people camp is because they wanna get closer to nature. To live off the land, earn their keep, to feel alive like a real man!"

"Ugh-- Please don't remind me of that oaf!"

"Heh heh-- Well it's not like I'm the one who agreed to date him."

"Shut up!"

Evergreen had been Freed's best friend as well since preschool when the two of the agreed that only one color looked best on the both of them. She was a woman who liked the finer things in life, wishing to get as less dirty as possible unless it was required or needed. She had soft light brown hair that she had arranged into a sideways ponytail to keep the elements out of it as much as possible with dark brown eyes that she hid behind a pair of oval-shaped glasses and visible pink lips. She had a very voluptuous figure paired with very large breasts and curvy hips that would make any man swoon over or lucky enough to be called her their _'girlfriend'_.

"I honestly don't see what's so great about catching, killing, gutting, deboning then eating the animals you catch..."

"Ya' never do," Bickslow shrugged, "And there lies your problem--"

"Excuse me?!" Evergreen all but shrieked causing Freed to jump a few feet into the air as a result. "What did you just say?"

"I said you are so useless out here, it's amazing that your ancestors were able to survive at all to have you."

"How dare you--"

"Bickslow, Evergreen-- Enough!" Freed declared, once his heart had calmed down. "Bickslow. Evergreen is entitled to her beliefs and decisions just as much as you are. You have no right to criticize her."

"Sorry Freed baby." Bickslow sighed. The minute Freed turned away from them, his eyes narrowing dangerously at the brunette who stuck her tongue out at him. He stuck his tongue back at her. "Man, why do you keep siding with her?"

"I'm not siding with anyone," Freed replied, stern eyes returning to Bickslow before they locked onto Evergreen, "Evergreen-- Knock that off. You are full grown adult, not a child. Please act like it."

Evergreen froze before quickly situating herself to look prime and proper while pointing a heated glare at the raven-blunette who merely snickered. He halted once Freed spoke once more, though he wasn't looking at him, rather looking at the book in his lap, eyes roaming over the words as he addressed him in general.

"Bickslow. That includes you as well."

"Yes _'Mom'_."

Freed shot him a glare that had Bickslow clam up and began to look for something to do, though Freed had long since been immune to the sarcastic nickname, he still found annoyance with it. Once he was satisfied with Bickslow's desperate and rather clumsy attempts to apologize to the greenette he refocused his attention back to the book in his hands, eyes running through the numerous paragraphs among paragraphs. It was a rather interesting story written by his favorite author about a time-traveling scientist who travels to the far distant future where humanity had split into two groups, become a repercussion of a rather grotesque ideological of man and monster, civilization as a whole and the symbolic meaning of socialist political views, life and abundance, the contemporary angst about industrial relations and social degeneration through innocence and war.

A really fascinating read.

He furrowed his brow as he began to read how protagonist was lured with his machine by the main antagonists only for him to escape ahead to roughly 30 million years from his own time. He bit his lip before flipping the page and read as the protagonist describes seeing the last living things on a dying Earth: Menacing reddish crab-like creatures slowly wandering the blood-red beaches chasing after frighteningly enormous butterflies that fluttered in a world covered in simple lichenous vegetation. He flipped the page again as the protagonist makes more jumps forward through time, watching the Earth's rotation gradually cease and the sun grow larger, redder, and dimmer as the world falls silent and deathly cold as the last living things die out.

Freed was engrossed in his book he didn't realize that Evergreen and Bickslow began speaking as the tall raven-blunette placed another fish on the skillet to cook.

"You all saw that comet right?"

"Yeah," Evergreen nodded, "The weirdest thing I ever saw."

"Do comets normally come down like that?"

"Not that I read." Evergreen shrugged. "I don't even remember hearing about it."

"What do you think, Freed?"

"Freed?"

"Freed?"

"FREED!"

"Huh--? What--?" Freed jumped a few feet in the air much to the amusement of his friends, his heart beating wildly. "I'm sorry what did you say?"

"I asked if ya' saw the comet come down." Bickslow grinned. 

"You mean the one that came down an hour ago?" Freed asked, patting his chest where his heart lied. "In the gulley just aways outside town?" 

"That's the one."

"What about it?"

"Do comets come down like that?"

Before Freed could answer the sounds crickets chirping and the frogs croaking became nonexistent when the air around them was shattered by the sound of an approaching car that was coming closer to their destination. They all blinked and turned to look at one another in suspicion and confusion.

Who would come all the way out here in the dead of night?

"Were any of you guys expecting company?" Bickslow asked, looking to the direction of the sound. "Cause I sure as hell know I ain't."

"Neither am I."

Freed shook his head and turned to look into the direction as well, placing his book down. They all watched as another car came into view before coming to a complete stop right next to Bickslow's parked pick-up truck and the engine was cut off, silence filling the area once more. The door opened as they continued to watch and Freed and Bickslow quickly rose up from their seats when a familiar voice rang out in the stillness as the person in the car stepped out into the fire light, hands raised in a gesture of peace as he approached them and all three were quick to relax and let out heavy sighs of relief.

"Relax. It's just me."

"Ah- Rufus," Freed smiled, hand over his chest as he approached the man, "What on earth are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," The newcomer, Rufus, chuckled, "I never imagined you as the _'camping'_ or _'outdoorsy'_ type."

"There's a lot of things about myself you would be surprised to learn," Freed chuckled as he held a hand out toward their campsite, "Will you be joining us?"

"I might just do that," Rufus smiled, "Thank you."

It was often a shared joke among family, friends and in all of Magnolia that Freed Justine and Rufus Lore had to be twin brothers rather then two friends that met on chance in high school when they both attended a book club together. The similarity between the two men was as clear as a clear Spring morning, they shared the same looks, tastes, styles and interests and they were both slim, lean young men with an almost uncanny feminine figures about them but they were still different as the sun and the moon. Rufus possessed very long, straight blond hair that reached down and below his back, tied it back in low ponytail by a large, dark band, his bangs framed both sides of his face reached down to his shoulders and then flow backwards with the rest of his hair. He possessed dark green eyes that were hidden behind a pair of glasses similar to Evergreen's and delicate facial features that often had the poor man confused for a woman as well.

Something Freed related to all very well.

"Lore. It's been awhile man," Bickslow grinned, sitting himself back down onto the log, "Though, you could have found a better way to say _'hi'_. Gave me a heart attack."

"Yes and for that, I humbly beg for your forgiveness." Was the reply as he approached them. "It wasn't my intention, I promise you. I have come bearing news for not only for Freed but for myself as well."

"News?" Bickslow asked.

"What kind of news?" Evergreen asked.

"Our boss is looking for all of us." He answered as he joined Freed onto the log on the opposite side of the campfire. "Freed and myself-- But the two of you are more then welcome to tag along if you wish." 

"Dr. Rose was looking for me?" Freed blinked. "I don't--"

"He tried getting a hold you by phone," Rufus said, "But it seemed that he had forgot that you'd be out of town and when I reminded him, he immediately tasked me to find you."

"Why?" Evergreen asked. "What does Rose need you and Freed for?"

"A job." Rufus answered. "A job that could for all we know could change the very world of science."

"Neat."

"Looks like your fishing trip was a success." Rufus replied.

"Sure was-- Want some?" Bickslow grinned, holding up a small plate filled with already gutted, deboned and cooked fish. "We've got plenty."

"I would love to, thank you." Rufus smiled, taking an offered plate with a biscuit on its surface before taking the smallest fish and began to cut it into chunks. "It's about that meteor that landed outside of town not to long ago. People are already saying its size could rival that of a baby whale and landed about 10 - 12 miles outside of Magnolia to the north in a ravine, they said--"

"Oh that." Freed nodded. "Yes. We watched it."

"Now are they sure it was a meteor?" Evergreen asked, resting her head in her hands with the elbows on her knees as she leaned in a little closer, "It sure didn't come down like one."

"I couldn't tell you for sure, I didn't see it come down for myself as I was with my boyfriend-- uh-- ahem-- _'dancing'_ ," Rufus coughed, face a little red much to the snickering of Evergreen and Bickslow but he was quick to recover, "But they are all saying it came down in _'spurts'_. That's what Freed and I have been asked to figure it by our boss. The only clue I got about it was that it was glowing red hot with heat."

"Sounds seriously boring if ya' asked me." Bickslow grinned, throwing his head back. "But if Freed must-- He must... Say Freed baby, would ya' mind if Ever and I stay here for the remainder of the night, pack up and take my truck in the morning? You and Lore can go back to town tonight if you want."

"You can stay in the guest room in my house if you'd like," Rufus offered, "I'll let my boyfriend know that you'll be staying the night."

"Sure." Freed smiled, before turning to Rufus. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. We better head out." Rufus smiled, picking up his makeshift fish sandwich and took a quick bite of it. "Guess I'll take my fish to go won't I?"

"Guess ya' will." Bickslow laughed.

"We'll see you tomorrow." Evergreen replied. "We'll all meet up at the landing site around noon. Does Dr. Rose need you two there immediately tonight?"

"No." Rufus shook his head. "We are to head out to the meteor site in the morning but I'll admit, I'm a bit of an over-planner as well as an overachiever. I like being prepared."

"The feeling's mutual," Freed chuckled, "Let me grab my things and I meet you at your car."

"Fair enough."

"All right then." Bickslow smiled. "Guess we'll see ya' tomorrow Freed baby. Can't wait to see what this is all about."

"I'm sure you can't." Evergreen smiled with an eye roll. "If anything, I bet you're only going there to see if she's there."

"Shut up." Bickslow puffed, cheeks pink.

"Not so high and mighty now that the tables are turned on you, huh?" Evergreen sneered. "How does that feel?"

"I hate you."

Freed couldn't help but laugh at his best friends' playful snipe at each other's love lives. Honestly, he had no idea why they wanted to keep their relationships secret or why they wanted to be so secretive about it. He had no problem with either Lisanna or Elfman Strauss or their eldest sister, Mirajane, he thought they were all very lovely and friendly people. He guessed that since the two of them were the younger siblings of Mirajane and Evergreen and Bickslow, under the assumptions that Elfman and Lisanna didn't like the other's partner didn't want to incur either siblings' wrath or god forbid, their eldest sister's wrath, upon them being discovered dating the other.

Freed thought it was all counter-productive and rather redundant.

"If I could ask," Freed blinked, attention drawn toward the blonde, "Do your friends hate each others' significant other?"

Freed stared at him, pausing in his packing process allowing his mind to process what it was Rufus had told him and almost immediately his face burst into a large smile and he laughed.

"No." Freed answered through his laughs. "They just enjoy poking at each other's soft spots. You'll get used to it."

"Ah~ I see."

"We best be going if we are to look at that comet," Freed said, getting up, "I'll see the two of you at the comet site?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." Bickslow grinned.

"See you tomorrow sweetie."

"Night."

"Night."

Freed got up and gathered his things and joined Rufus toward the blonde's parked car and once Rufus had unlocked the car door, allowing Freed in and making himself comfortable in the passenger seat, they pulled away and headed back toward town both unaware of what was going to await for them, Freed specially, and what was going to unfold on them and soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can anyone guess the name and author of book Freed's reading?
> 
> All reviews much appreciated.

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews much appericated. :3


End file.
